Don't lose the magic of train travel

7:17 PM,
Dec. 9, 2013

A rail crew works at the scene of the fatal Metro-North train derailment on Dec. 2 in the Bronx near the Spuyten Duyvil station. The Metro-North passenger train derailed on Dec. 1 en route to New York City near the Spuyten Duyvil station, killing four people and wounding 63 others.

Written by

Christine Potter

To live in the Hudson River Valley is to hear the sounds of trains - freights rattling along the west shore of the river, Metro-North shuttling commuters back and forth from The City on the east bank. Some call that noise pollution, but I love it like I love bird song. It's the sound of home.

I knew I was almost grown-up when my parents let me ride from Dobbs Ferry to Grand Central by myself for the first time. It was the '60s, I was 12, and the great terminal looked like an 1920s mansion, only giant. There were heavy wooden writing desks over by the main ladies' restroom, and a nook downstairs where you ...